More than 160 Afghan refugees resettling in Owensboro are temporarily stuck at Comfort Suites because they haven’t secured permanent housing yet, through no fault of their own. Clerical errors have led to the city exceeding capacity for refugees, many of which are still waiting on their Social Security cards. Some landlords are hesitant to rent out their spaces, though there aren’t many to begin with.
Essentially, there has been no shortage of hurdles during the resettlement process, which has been described as frustrating and chaotic at times. But, there are local people and groups that have been working around the clock to iron out all the kinks.
Several of those involved say that things are heading in the right direction, including finding jobs and becoming self-sufficient. One looming issue remains, though, and that’s finding a place for about 60 households to reside.
How Owensboro exceeded capacity
Earlier this year, it was announced that Owensboro was expected to receive 100 refugees who were removed from Afghanistan once the U.S. withdrew its military from the country. According to information obtained Monday by Owensboro Times, the capacity for Owensboro was actually 150 refugees.
The first refugee resettling in Owensboro arrived in Kentucky on Oct. 15, and by Nov. 13 the number had only grown to 40. However, 96 arrived from Nov. 14-20, with another 19 refugees coming in the next week.
With 155 total refugees accounted for, that was already slightly over capacity for Owensboro.
More kept coming. At last count, 187 refugees had resettled in the city, with two more on their way.
“The resettlement of Afghans throughout the U.S. is managed through a database called “‘Hummingbird’ and it appears that there was some miscoding. Afghans that had departed for Owensboro had been keyed as being resettled in a different city,” according to an email sent from Kentucky State Refugee Coordinator Becky Jordan to local officials including Mayor Tom Watson and Judge-Executive Al Mattingly. “… Afghan arrivals kept getting sent to Owensboro to reach the capacity of 150, and due to the data entry error it appeared that Owensboro had not reached their capacity. So the arrivals kept coming.”
Jordan wrote that if after a few months, Anna Allen (Site Director for the Owensboro office of the International Center of Kentucky) believes Owensboro can resettle more Afghans, “that can be discussed but for right now there is a moratorium on Afghan arrivals coming to Owensboro.”
Concerns from local leaders
Watson and Mattingly both said despite expecting to be involved in the discussions as the refugees resettled in the community, neither was in the early going.
“The concern that I had was that we were told we were going to get 100 refugees, and all of a sudden we’ve got 187 with more coming,” Mattingly said. “Neither the mayor nor I were notified when they were going to be here, and secondly we haven’t been involved in any of the discussions with the International Center. The first that I knew that they were even here was when I met with a group of citizens who were trying to work the housing issue out.”
He continued, “We didn’t know how many were coming. We weren’t involved on the front end. And the other thing was they were supposed to already have work permits, ID cards and social security numbers. And they showed up here with none of those.”
Watson said that was one of his main concerns. He said when he called asking about the paperwork for the refugees, he was met with the question “what papers?”
“I’m not saying that these people are violent or whatever. We just don’t have any information about them. I think that’s not too much to ask,” he said. “So this was kind of disappointing because we (worked with assimilating) the Vietnamese people and the Burmese people. We got information, and they assimilated in the community.”
He added, “As an elected official, my number one concern is making sure we’re safe. Right now, we got an extra (187) people that may be just perfect citizens and happy to be here, but I don’t know that. That’s disturbing.”
However, Mattingly and others noted the refugees have gone through multiple stages of extensive vetting — meaning even without paperwork in their hand they could be trusted.
Susan Montalvo-Gesser, Director of Catholic Charities and a board member for the International Center, further detailed the vetting process. She also sent that information to landlords who were hesitant to rent to the refugees.
“I basically explained that before the Afghans got here, they had a very extensive background check on bases that were located in Europe,” Montalvo-Gesser said of the memo she sent. “They had the first set of vetting there, where they are vetted based upon facial recognition and biometrics, which are your fingerprints. Then they had another round of vetting whenever they got to the U.S. bases, where they got their biometrics taken so that they could get their work permits. They signed every single thing that is in a database for anything that a person could have done. They go well beyond what would be done in a background check that you would use for a person renting property here.”
Comfort Suites accommodating most refugees
Tuesday evening, five children were glued to a TV screen in the lobby of the Comfort Suites as they watched YouTube videos in their native language. Nearby, a group of men sat at a high-top table, deep in conversation.
In the breakfast area, another handful of men were participating in an English lesson as they took turns writing answers on a dry erase board. On the other side of an accordion divider, mothers watched as their children colored and interacted with local women on site to volunteer in whatever ways they were needed.
A clothesline has been installed out back, as the families are accustomed to drying their laundry that way. A basketball goal sits out front, and a lot across the street has a goal so the refugees can play soccer.
It’s not a home, but for now it’s the closest thing many of the refugees have.
Of the data available on the first 155 refugees, there are 60 total households that break down as follows:
- 34 Individuals
- 6 Married Couples
- 2 Families of two (Adult Sibling/Minor Sibling)
- 1 Family of three (Adult Sibling/Minor Siblings)
- 6 Families of four
- 1 Family of five
- 4 Families of six
- 1 Family of seven
- 3 Families of eight
- 2 Families of nine
The age breakdown is as follows:
- Under 18 — 66
- 18-21 — 11
- 22 to 29 — 28
- 30-39 — 37
- 40-49 — 10
- 50-59 — 1
- 60-64 — 1
- 65+ — 1
Most of those have ended up at the Comfort Suites.
Roger Buchanan, Director of Operations at Comfort Suites, said the hotel took in its first family, a family of four, on Nov. 12. As of Tuesday, they had accepted more than 160 individuals.
“It’s all gone smooth,” he said. “What happens is (the International Center) gets the families checked in, and then we get them into the hotel. Then we go from there.”
The families are initially checked in under the International Refugee Center name. Once the families get settled and acclimated, the process of identifying everyone begins, including a breakdown of which families are in which room, including names and ages.
Diane Ford playing a major role in helping refugees
Ford’s role has evolved since she first volunteered to help the International Center. She said she’s become somewhat of their housing coordinator.
“Once the refugees all began to arrive and we realized that they majority of them were going to have to be placed in this hotel, it was clear that somebody really needed to be here most days, for a good portion of the time just to kind of manage everything that was going on as far as meals and transportation and medical care. Eventually the kids enrolled in schools. There are just so many needs that arise when you have nearly 170 people living in a hotel.”
In an upstairs suite at the hotel, Ford has set up a workspace from which to operate.
In part, she runs a makeshift pharmacy from there, doing everything from providing ibuprofen for pain relief after dental appointments, to taking blood pressure for pregnant women, to taking temperatures for children with coughs and colds.
“You don’t really think about those things when you decide to put this many people in a hotel,” she said. “You quickly realize they need three meals a day. They’re gonna get sick. They’re gonna need to be entertained to some degree because they’re stuck. They have no transportation, nowhere to go. So there are a lot of logistics that you don’t think about prior to (them arriving).”
Ford said it was important for her that the refugees see that someone was around that they could rely on and that could earn their trust.
“They need to know that we as a community want them to be here and we want to give them every chance of success because they deserve that,” she said. “They provided such a role for our military and for our government during our almost 20-year occupancy in their country, and they never expected to have to leave. It was the least that I felt like I could do.”
While parents look for jobs, children have begun school
So far, a total of 65 refugee children have been enrolled in schools across the Daviess County Public Schools District. None have enrolled at Owensboro Public Schools yet.
Shelly Hammons, DCPS Federal Programs Coordinator, said the district established a plan for enrolling students “in a manner in which to help to alleviate the stress” of adding so many children mid-semester.
Hammons said the largest number of students are at one elementary school. To create a more fluid enrollment plan, they had no more than nine new students attend each day.
“Additional staff has been placed to help meet the needs of all students and staff,” Hammons said. “If the students attend middle or high school, they are beginning school in the Newcomer program if their English is limited. Those who have a strong command of the English language will start in regular classes with the same support as all English Learners.”
Hammons said many of the students in middle and high school are well-studied in the English language, as are some of the elementary students. For the ability to communicate with both students and families, DCPS has access to the use of interpreters through a phone language line and in-person individuals through the Afghan community.
“The Afghan refugees value an education and encourage and support the school in helping their children navigate a new country, new educational system, and a new community,” Hammons said.
With jobs expected to come soon, housing remains biggest hurdle
Ford said while most everything is headed in the right direction, housing is still a major concern.
“We had the affordable housing crisis we were already dealing with, then you have an unprecedented emergency evacuation (from Afghanistan where refugees came here),” she said. “And then you’re sent all of the refugees basically at the same time. And then you have some hiccups with your documents. You’re kind of left with a little bit of chaos, but we’re working through it.”
She said on top of all that, there has been some hesitancy with some property owners. Even if the refugees had Social Security numbers ready, they don’t have a credit history. Normal criminal background checks also can’t be completed, and there’s not yet steady income from a job.
“We understand their hesitancy, but what we have to give the refugees a chance,” Ford said. “Because if we don’t, then there’s no way that they’re going to succeed here. If we want a diverse inclusive community, this is how we get there. These people are professional, successful, educated and motivated individuals who will make our community better if we give them the opportunity to do so.”
Montalvo-Gesser said based on the experience the International Center has had, landlords should have plenty of trust in the refugees being able to find work.
“In our time resettling refugees, most people have a job and are completely self-sufficient within 90 days, which is not something you see in the general population,” she said.
Montalvo-Gesser said the International Center was hearing from landlords and property managers that “they could only house so many people per bedroom and that they were required to do background checks.”
“Neither one of those things are required under the law,” she said. “(The memo I sent) was basically to explain those things they were doing may be internal policies, but there’s no law that requires that unless it’s government housing.”
Plus, she said, the International Center and other organizations have worked to create a fund “to ensure that there will not be any loss to landlords that are renting to Afghan arrivals.” The center is also willing to cosign on leases if for some reason the short-term federal money available for refugees is not enough to cover the first three months of rent.
Ford said the community has been “absolutely phenomenal” as far as stepping up with their donations for clothing and monetary donations to cover the meals as the resettlement process continues.
“I feel like we are definitely going to get there, she said. “We just have to to keep pushing and keep persuading people to trust that our community will continue to support these people, to get them in the right jobs that they need to to be able to afford the housing that we’re going to put them in, and so that those property owners will feel okay and confident in renting their properties to these people.”
While she said there may have been communication issues initially, Ford is hoping everyone is on the same page now and will work together to get the refugees assimilated.
“Let’s not look backwards. Let’s look forward to what we can do to make this better,” she said. “I think our mayor and our judge-executive are committed to doing this right, and hopefully we can all figure out the best system and the best way forward.”
